Advanced Scoring 2.0 - The Official MMC Guide
Introduction Have you ever seen the ridiculously high scores on the Hexic HD leaderboards and wondered to yourself, “What the…?” If so, then you probably thought the scores were hacked. And if you did, you’re wrong; the scores are legit. Believe it or not, they were achieved with single combos, and many only took a few hours. But how can this be possible, especially with such low stats? For a long time, achieving high scores in Hexic HD was rather tedious work. Advanced players would collect six multipliers of the same color and surround them around a black pearl. This resulted in a measly 1,120,000 points. One day asetta mysteriously posted a high score of over a billion! Many people at the Xbox.com forum were left shaking their heads in disbelief, as he had very low multiplier and bomb counts in his stats. After much discussion, theorizing, and testing, the idea of creating a single combo with as many pieces as possible arose. These combos became known as Massive Multiplier Combos (MMCs). The first designs were small, but they soon became worth billions of points. Since then, MMCs have gotten bigger and better, but unfortunately much more complicated. This guide will help you understand how MMCs work, how to properly design them, and the basics of building them. How Do MMCs Work? As with everything in Hexic, the larger a cluster is, the more points you will earn. When a multiplier is used in a cluster, the score is doubled. If more than one multiplier of the same color is used, the score begins to increase exponentially. For example, if you made a cluster containing three multipliers, your combo would have a xVALUE (times value) of 2³ or x8. Therefore, your goal in making MMCs is to incorporate as many multipliers as possible into a single combo. MMCs are only really effective once a total of 16 or so multipliers can be clustered. So the question is – how do you get so many pieces into one combo? Make Your Pieces Fall The player can make clusters of just three to five pieces when using the cursor to rotate them. The only way to cluster enough pieces is to make them fall beside and on top of each other. There are two different ways to do this. The first and most common method is to use a multiplier and bomb to remove pieces from the board. When a bomb is diffused by clustering it with a multiplier and a normal piece of the same color, all of that color is removed from the board. This color is often called the “filler” and can be any of the seven colors. When designing your MMC, you will want to arrange your pieces so that when all of the “filler” is removed, the pieces that were above the “filler” fall and cluster with pieces that were underneath the “filler.” The second method is one that requires no bomb to trigger. No Bomb MMCs (NBMMCs) often remove pieces by creating starflowers and clustering them between the MMC pieces so that the top pieces fall and cluster with the bottom pieces. While this method is the quickest and easiest, it is also the most limited and scores rarely exceed one billion. This method is best suited for beginners. The Rules of MMCs While Hexic HD is an excellent game, it has many frustrating quirks. Sometimes MMCs that look like they should work will not because of the way the pieces fall. Other times, MMCs split because of the placement of certain pieces. You cannot just throw a bunch of multipliers together and expect a good MMC. In order for you designs to work properly, you will need to follow these rules: :1. All of the pieces in the main cluster of an MMC must be the same color. This rule is self explanatory. The multipliers and normal pieces in the design may be any of the seven colors, but they must all be the same color. :2. The MMC cannot contain a cluster of same colored multipliers. If there is a cluster of three of more MMC multipliers, it will be scored as a normal cluster of multipliers. You will only receive a few hundred points and it will break the MMC. :3. An MMC cannot create any starflowers. Creating a starflower in your MMC will greatly reduce your score. This is because it breaks the MMC’s connection with the rest of the cluster. :4. To be included in the combo, each piece must contact two other same colored pieces. If a piece comes in contact with only one of the same colored piece, it will not cluster. :5. A piece cannot be four places high in the MMC if it combos with another piece in the column to its right. If a piece is four pieces from the bottom of the MMC and combos with a piece to its right, it will break apart from the MMC and not be included in the main cluster. Not only will it break away, it will also create a low xVALUE that may present problems. However, raising the MMC with non-combing pieces so that there is a piece four places high from the bottom of the board but less than four places high in the MMC will work. It should be noted that if a piece is four pieces from the bottom of MMC and combos with a piece to its left, it will work. :6. All falling pieces must fall the same distance to be included in the MMC. If all of the pieces do not fall the same distance, they will cluster at separate times. Single Piece Columns If at all possible, you should aim to include at least two pieces of your MMC in every column. However, sometimes it is impossible to avoid creating a column that contains only one piece. If you must, there are some things you should know about single piece columns. # Columns with a single pieces that is falling will always work. # Columns with a single pieces that is static and on the side of the MMC will always work. # Columns with a single piece that is static and not on the side of the MMC will often break the MMC. There are five instances of this problem. #* Instance 1 - To the left and right of the static piece, only one piece is falling. This is the only instance that works 100% of the time. #* Instance 2 - To the left, one piece is falling; to the right, two consecutive pieces are falling. This fails around 50% of the time. It creates a low xVALUE but the main xVALUE of the MMC is unaffected. #* Instance 3 - To the left, two consecutive pieces are falling; to the right, one piece is falling. This fails around 50% of the time. It splits the MMC into two parts, resulting in two xVALUEs. #* Instance 4 - To the left and right of the static piece, two consecutive pieces are falling. This fails more that 50% of the time. It splits the MMC into three parts, resulting in three xVALUEs. #* Instance 5 - The static piece is on the bottom. Above it to the left and right, two consecutive pieces are falling. This fails around 50% of the time. It splits the MMC into two parts, resulting in two xVALUEs. Scoring Priority Hexic has a scoring priority from left to right and from top to bottom. This means several things. When a combo is made, Hexic starts looking for that combo in the top left and ends in the bottom right. The scoring priority influences the way xVALUEs are taken (see Bonus Triangle MMCs, SFMMCs, and BPMMCs). Not only that, but it can also affect how reliable certain clusters will be when in different spots of the board. General Tips for Designing * Use qbix's Hexic Board Builder to design MMCs. * Start with the cluster you want and then add the “filler.” * Use two “filler” pieces to fit more multipliers into your design. * Avoid using three “filler” piece stacks. * Avoid using stacks on three pieces in any way. * Look at designs from all angles for new ideas. * Build up with your designs. * Use stars to lift up your design and “snake” the MMC around them. * Combine parts of MMCs that have already been proven to work. * The ratio for normal pieces to multipliers is around 1:3. If yours is larger, you are using too many normal pieces and not enough multipliers. MMC Scoring Formula So how many points is your newly designed MMC going to get? There is a formula just for figure this out: 5 x (level) x (multipliers+ normal pieces - 2) x 2^ (number of multipliers) = MMC Score Example: Level 7, 18 multipliers, 5 normal pieces 5 x (7) x (18 + 5 - 2) x 2^ (18) = 192,765,840 You will not want to figure this every time you design a new MMC, so it is recommended that you download the latest MMC Calculator(Excel spreadsheet). Here are some MMCs that have been proven to work: Standard MMCs oldtaco's 18 multiplier MMC - 220,200,960 points epzents’s 19 multiplier MMC - 440,401,920 points fda4ever’s 19 multiplier MMC - 477,102,080 points YS23 Aoki’s 20 multiplier MMC – 954,204,160 points TylerTim’s 20 multiplier MMC - 954,204,160 points slowgod’s 22 multiplier MMC – 3,963,617,280 points Bonus Triangle MMCs (BTMMCs) YS23 Aoki's 18+5 multiplier BTMMC – 1,844,183,040 points YS23 Aoki's 20+4 multiplier BTMMC – 9,688,842,240 points Starflower MMCs (SFMMCs) JDog053's 18 multiplier SFMMC (4+4 SF clusters) - 18,542,755,840 points JDog053's 19 multiplier SFMMC (4+4 SF clusters) - 37,122,211,840 points epezent's 19 multiplier SFMMC (7 SF cluster) - 46,297,251,840 points PRISONxMIKE's 20 multiplier SFMMC (4+3 SF cluster) - 55,931,043,840 points epezent's 19 multiplier SFMMC (4+7 SF clusters) - 64,647,331,840 points slowgod's 20 multiplier SFMMC (4+4 SF clusters) - 74,317,824,000 points slowgod's 20+1 mutiplier SFMMC (4+4 SF clusters) - 75,051,827,200 points BeerKnuckle's 20 multiplier SFMMC (4+4+3 SF clusters) - 92,667,904,000 points PRISONxMIKE's 23 multiplier SFMMC (4 SF cluster) - 302,115,717,120 points Black Pearl MMCs (BPMMCs *these may freeze the game*) oldtaco's 19 multiplier BPMMC (6 BP cluster) - 367,442,001,920 points oldtaco's 22+4 multiplier BPMMC (5 BP cluster) - 2,217,717,268,480 points PRISONxMIKE's 24 multipler BPMMC (6 BP cluster) - 11,761,667,276,800 points No Bomb MMCs (NBMMCs) YS23 Aoki’s 14 multiplier NBMMC – 9,175,040 points oldtaco’s 16 multiplier NBMMC - 43,581,440 points